Know who’s won the most seniormajors? Some elite players don’t

In recent years when you talk with casual golf ans about the professional game, it usually doesn’t take long before somebody asks, “So will Tiger pass Jack’s 18 majors?” Or maybe it’s omebody wondering, “How soon will Rory McIlroy or Yani Tseng win another major?” Indeed, for the majority of fans, golf is all about majors. Except, however, when the topic moves toward the Champions Tour. The fiftysomething and sixtysomething pros play five tournaments a year classified with this elite status. Understand- ably, victories in these events aren’t held in the same esteem as majors won on the PGA Tour. It’s like comparing apples and candy apples. But the Champions Tour majors deserve more respect— not just from fans but the players themselves. Approached last year about the subject, two of the most successful seniors weren’t even aware of their place on the career honor roll. Asked who
has won the most Champions Tour majors, Tom
Watson said, “I don’t know.” Similarly, Hale Irwin
shrugged his shoulders.

Told the answer is Jack Nicklaus, with eight,Watson and Irwin each smiled, as if saying, “Whoelse would it be?” But neither knew how theystood on the list. Irwin was informed he’s secondwith seven. Watson has six, along with Gary Player(who believes he should be the leader with nine).“We’re all conscious of the majors on our tour,”Watson said, “but they just don’t have the sameaura as the majors on the Kids Tour, as I call it.”Three years ago Watson, then 59, almost wonwhat would have been his ninth major on the KidsTour, the unforgettable 2009 British Open atTurnberry that Stewart Cink snatched in aplayoff. The senior-major window usually closesquickly, but last year Watson won his secondSenior PGA Championship to go with threeSenior British Opens and one Tradition. Al-though he was hoping to add another at the year’sfirst Champions Tour major, next week’s SeniorPGA at the GC at Harbor Shores in BentonHarbor, Mich., Watson will have to wait afterwithdrawing May 19 due to a wrist injury.

Irwin, who will be 67 in June, has four Senior

Watson’s place
on the senior
major winners’
list won’t change
this week. A wrist
injury forced
him to WD from
the Senior PGA
Championship.

PGAs, two U.S. Senior Opens and a Senior Players.
He’s the Champions Tour’s all-time victory leader
with 45. Although the three-time U.S. Open champ
hasn’t won since 2007, he thinks he’s still capable
of tying Nicklaus’ total. “Watson’s backswing is
up here, my body won’t go there” Irwin said,
lifting his right hand high behind him as if he
were swinging a club. “But I’m genetically
blessed, and I’ve had an athletic background,”
alluding to his two-time All-Big Eight honors as a
Colorado defensive back.

Gary Player, meanwhile, keeps asking why
his three Senior British Open triumphs in
1988, 1990 and 1997 don’t count. The technical
reason is simple: The Champions Tour didn’t
recognize the British as “official” until 2003.
Sam Snead’s six Senior PGAs in the dark ages
before the Champions Tour was founded in
1980 also don’t count. In both cases they really
should. Both events have the historical
authenticity to be majors.

And if Nicklaus has the most senior majors,
that list deserves more esteem as well. If the
50-and-older set wants the golf public to take the
Champions Tour more seriously, it needs to take
its majors more seriously. N